The poet returns!

The celebrated and inebriated West Wales poet made only one recorded visit to Fishguard, about which I wrote in a previous blip. That was in 1936. Today his namesake's crane* was here to perform the twice-yearly chore of lifting the pleasure boats between their winter dry land quarters and the harbour. I've put a couple of images here and here that give an idea of what's involved.

This old harbour in the lower part of the town was in fact the location for the filming of Under Milk Wood in 1972 (although the actual place Llareggub was based upon is thought to be Newquay further up the coast.) Dylan Thomas had been dead almost 20 years by then but another famous Welshman featured in it and spent time drinking in the local pubs. In this photo Richard Burton is standing above the harbour here and if you trace a horizontal line left from his nose to the centre of the image that's where I live although the house is too faint to be seen.

* Edit: the strapline of the crane hire firm, based in the neighbouring county of Ceredigion, is Poetry in Motion!